Cockburn steeled himself Wednesday after a press release from the Trump administration’s “Freedom 250” plopped into his inbox. The missive promised a line-up of “Star-Studded Entertainment” for the Great American State Fair, set to take place on the National Mall for three weeks over the nation’s semiquincentennial. Nine “music icons” would perform for free, including the Commodores, Flo Rida and a smattering of one-hit wonders.
Two days later and the schedule is in tatters: eight of the nine acts have withdrawn following fan backlash, with critics branding the event “DC’s very own Fyre Fest.” Only Flo Rida remains.
“I was presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading,” wrote country singer Martina McBride, one of the nine, in a statement. “The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event,” said Young MC, another act.
Well, quite. Who in their right mind would assume that a concert in Washington might be political in nature? And why wouldn’t you believe that the Trump White House was capable of pulling off a bipartisan celebration of the country?
It’s remarkable how much more straightforward it is to put on a show when fans know it’s political in nature. Just look at Turning Point USA’s Super Bowl halftime show with Kid Rock and various country singers, a response to the NFL’s selection of Puerto Rican performer Bad Bunny. No one dropped out.
Your correspondent was on the ground at Nationals Park to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on their deeply political tour of the country. Springsteen led chants of “ICE out” during “Streets of Minneapolis” and interrupted his set to deliver monologues which could easily be mistaken for a Washington Post subscriber’s cancellation letter to Jeff Bezos. The merch stands sold $50 shirts bearing slogans such as “destroy American fascism” and “NO KINGS” – Cockburn would guess that the Venn diagram of concert attendees and No Kings protesters from the DC suburbs is a circle.
Springsteen announced that he’d be doing another DC-area show ahead of the midterms, alongside Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, Foo Fighters, Jack Black and the Dropkick Murphys. Tickets are $125. Art can be political as long as it’s for profit: that’s the American way.
On our radar
DEBATABLE President Trump responded to Jill Biden’s recent statements on her husband’s 2024 presidential debate performance on Truth Social. Commenting on her failure to be a “good wife”, Trump said had Jill failed to mention “how well I was doing” before Joe’s “near total collapse.”
DC GLOW-UP Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that Union Station will receive a $465 million grant to increase public safety and rider experience, while Interior Secretary Doug Burgum yesterday turned the water on at the Columbus Circle Fountain for the first time in 19 years.
ON GUARD The Trump administration plan to surge another 1,500 National Guardsmen to DC ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary. At present, 2,600 National Guard troops are deployed in the capital to fight crime and beautify the city.
Katie Miller gets ugly on X
Katie Miller can’t stop calling people ugly online. This week, her husband Stephen Miller quoted a post from the Democrats’ official X account with a picture of James Talarico, claiming, egregiously, that the 36-year-old man running for the Senate in Texas is transgender.
The Democrats’ account responded in the trademark-millennial all lowercase, “shut up you ugly fuck.” A strangely juvenile response from the Democratic party account, yes, but words not altogether unfamiliar given the present tenor of political rhetoric. A silly choice among silly choices, akin to “kamala is brat.”
Katie Miller quoted the tweet with an image of a young woman: “Paulina Mangubat is who runs @TheDemocrats account. She’s 30, unmarried with no kids. Put your name on it next time. This is what a sad, unhappy, female Liberal looks like. It’s why Pew reports 50% of them have been diagnosed with a mental condition.”
Then the photos of Mangubat, a 2017 alumnus of Manhattan’s Barnard College, started rolling in. Pictures of her smiling with very white teeth. At least one picture of her in a bikini, looking fantastic. In all of them, to Cockburn’s eye at least, she appeared rather pretty. Even worse for Miller was the fact that Mangubat took this as a perfect moment to announce that she is engaged and had just nailed down a venue. She posted a picture of herself in a wedding dress she tried on but didn’t buy, quoting Miller’s original post calling her unmarried and unhappy.
Later, in response to the Democrats calling her husband ugly, Katie Miller told Fox News viewers: “This is the same violent political rhetoric that is leading people to shooting up, whether it be the White House Correspondents’ Dinner or President Trump in Butler.”
Meanwhile, Mangubat’s colleagues baked her a cake with icing that read, “You ratioed Temu Hitler and are also hot.”
Katie Miller seems to want to position herself as the archetypal ballistic Bravo wife of the Trump administration. An article was published in the Telegraph earlier this month titled, “The far-Right has got a new weapon: glamorous young women.” Miller posted a picture of the female reporter who wrote the article’s face on X – captioned “The author of this article” – to insinuate that the woman who wrote it was ugly.
“Glamorous,” the operative word in the headline, is nothing close to an insult unless you’re Amish. Cockburn doesn’t understand why the Telegraph article produced any ire in the first place, or why the Millers keep punching if they can’t take a hit.
There is more to unpack here about women, politics and happiness. For now let’s leave it at this: Miller’s mean-girl posts are a revealing portrait of the state of her soul – and far more damning than anything she screenshots off some young lady’s Instagram.
Not so dead presidents
The US Treasury plans to create a commemorative $250 bill featuring the President’s face, according to a Washington Post story this week.
But the plan of action comes with a few major roadblocks: as the law stands, American currency can only be printed in “denominations of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000, [and] $10,000.” Another law states that bills must only depict a “deceased individual.” Both laws would need to be changed by an act of Congress before printing could begin. “It’s all up on Capitol Hill,” Scott Bessent told the press yesterday. “At the Treasury, we prepare things in advance.” The news comes two months after the Treasury announced that Trump’s autograph would replace the US Treasurer’s on all US bills.
The bill is being mooted as a commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary, the irony of which should be lost on no one. Only a handful of nations worldwide feature their living leader on their currency. Though the list is diverse – including the United Kingdom, Thailand, Norway and Saudi Arabia – they all share one characteristic: their rulers are monarchs.
By calling for the creation of a bill emblazoned with his face, Trump’s Treasury is unintentionally putting the President in a place traditionally left for kings. Happy 250th!
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